19 Jul Lawyer Discovers Fast Student Loan Payoff: Join the Army

University of St. Thomas Law School graduate Thomas McGregor found himself with $108,000 in law school tuition loans. The only job he could find was with his family’s roofing business making $15 an hour. So how did he pay off his loans in just two years? As he put it, all he had to do was put his life on the line.

McGregor joined the Army. They immediately paid off $65,000 of the debt thanks to an Army college loan repayment program. Then he saved his Army salary and paid off the rest in just two years. One of those years he spent deployed in Iraq. The ABA Journal reports that he was able to make more money because he went to Officer Candidate School.

One commenter to the article lamented that it looked more like an ad for the Army than a legitimate news story. I’m all for anyone who makes the enormous sacrifice to serve our country in the armed forces.  But if you do that only because of financial stress, that’s kind of a shame. I think there must be a way to develop a better model to finance higher education. What is it? What do you think?